“Anger is never without a reason, but seldom with a good one.” Benjamin Franklin

One question that I’ve been frequently asked is, “Is it good to play angry?” Will anger motivate you to play better? Every once in a while something will happen before or during a competition that will get you hopping mad and then you’ll go out and play the game of your life. The natural conclusion to draw from this situation would be that it was the anger that got you to play well. Don’t get too excited and believe that you’ve finally found the secret to peak performance. Now all you have to do is get yourself mad before all your games and you’ll play well. In fact, 99 out of 100 times, playing angry will only get you into some serious hot water performance-wise. When you’re angry, your physiological arousal level goes way up. This will lead to distracted concentration, tighter muscles and shallow, faster breathing. The end result of these will be a poor performance. Instead you want to keep your cool, on and off the field. Anger makes us wicked stupid! We end up saying and doing really dumb things when we get ticked off. We get into trouble with our coaches, the refs, teammates and the fans. Instead you want to learn to keep your cool. You want to stay relaxed when you compete. This is the secret to peak performance. Even if you have a good reason for getting angry before or during a competition, don’t waste your energy and focus on this emotion. In the end, it will sink you.